Stocks Succumb to Late Selloff

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- The major U.S. equity averages finished lower Tuesday as investors piled out of the technology, energy and financial sectors in the final hour of trading.

It was a sour close to a topsy-turvy session. Stocks sank at the start of the day but rallied back into positive territory as strong earnings from Home Depot (HD) stoked optimism about the housing market.

The tech sector was weak throughout the day and the selling accelerated into the close. The broad move lower came against the backdrop of ongoing investor worries about the eurozone's stability and the ability of the U.S. government to address the fiscal cliff by the end of the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 59 points, or 0.46%, to settle at 12,756. The blue-chip index, which ranged from 12,748-12,898 on the day, has now fallen in four of the past five sessions.

Microsoft(MSFT) shares finished off 3.3% following news that Steven Sinofsky, formerly president of Windows and Windows Live, has left the software giant. The company didn't provide a reason for Sinofsky's surprise departure, which comes just weeks after Microsoft launched Windows 8.

Cisco(CSCO) shares finished down incrementally ahead of the networking giant's fiscal first-quarter report. The stock was surging nearly 7% in extended trading after the company beat Wall Street's expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

The biggest gainers within the Dow were du Pont (DD) , Home Depot, and Walt Disney (DIS) .

Home Depot shares popped 3.6% after the company posted third-quarter results that beat Wall Street forecasts and hiked its full-year guidance as the home-improvement retailer got a boost from the gradually improving U.S. housing market conditions.

The Atlanta-based company also raised its full-year outlook to sales growth of 5.2% and earnings of $3.03 a share after posting quarterly earnings of 74 cents a share on revenue of $18.13 billion, versus the average analyst expectation of earnings of 70 cents a share on revenue of $17.92 billion.

The S&P 500 slumped nearly 6 points, or 0.40%, to settle at 1374.53, while the Nasdaq dropped more than 20 points, or 0.70%, to finish at 2884.

In addition to tech, energy, and financials, other weak sectors included basic materials, conglomerates and capital goods. Only consumer non-cyclicals and utilities finished in the green.

Stocks got off to a weak start on Tuesday as uncertainties about the timeline of Greece's next tranche of bailout money and a deal on the U.S. fiscal cliff rattled investor confidence.

U.S. lawmakers now have seven weeks to hammer out a budget and avoid the fiscal cliff -- a set of automatic federal tax increases and spending cuts set to occur in January -- a situation that could lead the country back into a recession.